dmg1969

OK, I picked up all of my supplies at the Peak warehouse on Friday and made candles on Saturday and Sunday. I got 4 oz. and 8 oz. jars. I use the 4 oz. as my samples and the 8 oz. to sell to anyone interested here at work. I like mostly food scents and my wife likes more flowery, garden-type fragrances along with things like Nag Champa and Patchouli. On Saturday, my sister-in-law came over and we made Lilac (special order from my Mom), Fudge Brownie, Fresh Brewed Coffee and Coconut Milk. On Sunday, I made the Blueberry Muffin and Warm Apple Pie and my wife made Country Garden and Green Clover and Aloe. I only got a ten 1 oz. sample pack of the fragrances and each yielded one 4 oz. and two 8 oz. candles plus a little left for a "candle shop" candle. I brought one each of the 8 oz. Fudge Brownie, Fresh Brewed Coffee, Coconut Milk, Warm Apple Pie and Blueberry Muffin candles in to work yesterday and sold them all. I had one more of each at home and sold 2 of those. I just have one Warm Apple Pie and a Fresh Brewed Coffee. They LOVED the scents. The Fudge Brownie I am giving to my S-I-L for helping. My S-I-L is doing a craft show in April and wants me to make some candles to try to sell. On to my critique of the products... The FOs do seem better than the first supplier I was using. Although there are at least two that I will have to get through them because Peak does not have them. There seem to be more wet spots with the Eco-Soya, but that is preferable to frosting. I did have some frosting on some, none on others. It did not seem as bad as the Naturewax C-3 I was using before. I think watching my temperatures more carefully could eliminate that. I did not really monitor temperature closely because I wanted to see how forgiving the Eco-Soya was. I am still going to try either a para-soy or regular parafin so I can get a good comparison. If I could avoid the frosting althogether, I would be much happier. Here is a pic of three of them.

Thanks moonshine! I placed my order and am picking it up tomorrow after work. I am excited to see what their scents are like and the ecosoya vs. C-3. I'm hoping I can beat this frosting issue. If not, I may move to parafin or a parasoy.

Well, my wife and I are going to do some more candle making this weekend. I'm going to purchase supplies from Peak and pick it up Friday after work. I'm going with the EcoSoya Container Blend Advanced wax.

Thanks for your input MrsM. I will probably be switching waxes anyway because I am probably going to switch to the other supplier (who will allow me to pick up at their local warehouse rather than pay big $ for shipping). So, I need to see what they might have in the way of a soy/paraffin blend for container candles. I am going to have to re-do all of my samples anyway because I'm sure theirs are going to be different than those I have been getting from the other supplier.

I wanted to update the thread. We got more wax and fo's and made some more candles. I made three more fragrances in the same jars as the pics I posted. I did try lowering the temp and still had the frosting. Granted, I only lowered it to around 130 because I got impatient. My bad. I was still using the C-3. When it is fully melted and I add the liquid dye and fo, it is around 150 degrees. I remove the pour pot from the water and let it start to cool. The funny thing is that mu wife made a few under my watchful eye (she had chosen two fo's) and hers had very little frosting. We used 10 oz. keepsake jars for hers and the frosting only appears to be a ring around the bottom of the container. I am still considering a purchase from Peak to save on shipping, but I hate to have to start over with all of the fo's. I was considering actually abandoning the soy in favor of regular parafin wax to avoid the frosting, but I don't really want to give up on it. I may make a few more over the weekend and lower the temperature even more to see if I can beat it. We usually cool the poured candles in an out-of-the-way location on the counter. The last batch I made, I elevated on a baker's cooling rack to see if that helped. Has anyone ever tried this...I was considering trying to cool them in the oven. I would preheat the oven to warm (less than 200 degrees) and then turn it off. When the oven was barely warm, put them in on a cookie sheet and let them go. Thoughts?

Thanks again for the replies. I will sit down this weekend and look more into Peak Candle Supplies. If they allow me to pick up my order, I will definitely do so. I do have at least one scent from Lone Star that I love and will get again. And JI...the jars are Classic Jars from Lone Star...6.5 oz.

Thank you all for the replies. I do like the C-3 as it seems easy to work with. I will definitely try lowering the pour temp the next time we make them. We need to order some supplies first. Being new to the hobby, it took me a few minutes to figure out what FO meant. LOL! I use whatever a competitor to Peak (in Texas) sells. Theirs was the first website I came across and decided to buy from. I may change though because of their shipping. They ONLY ship UPS and the last order I placed consisted of only eight 1 oz. plastic bottles of FO and liquid dyes and it cost me like $14 in shipping. I was not happy and I told them I would likely not continue to be a customer based on that fact. I looked at Peak, but would have to start all over with trying FOs and another kind of wax. On the plus side, their warehouse in Mechanicsburg, PA is within 15-20 minutes from my work and a girl I spoke with at Peak said I could probably just pick my order up there. That would save me on shipping! Do any of you have a preference of a candle supply distributor? I already know about LoneStar and Peak.

Thanks for the information, Chuck! And thanks for moving this to the correct location. I am still very new to candle making. I'm not even sure WHY I opted to do soy candles instead of regular paraffin wax. I just had it in my mind that I would start off with soy. I was considering moving to paraffin or a blend. I will take some time to read on the forum as I have time. In the meantime, I will keep playing around with what I have on hand. I need to order more fragrance oils to try, containers and wax soon. Thanks again! Dave

First a quick intro. My name is Dave and I JUST started the process of making container candles. It is something I have wanted to try for a long time. So far, I have made about 2 dozen 6.5 oz jar candles trying out different scents/fragrances. I am trying to figure out why I am sometimes getting imperfections and sometimes not. Like yesterday...I made three 6.5 oz. jars each of four different scents. Two of the scents turned out relatively free of imperfections and the other two look horrible. I am posting a few photos to show what I am encountering. The specifics are that I am using soy wax (Naturewax C-3 container wax), liquid fragrance oil and liquid dye. I am pre-heating my containers in the oven. I pre-heat the over to about 250 and then turn it down to warm when I put the jars in. When the wax is thoroughly melted and clear, I pull the containers so they can cool slightly and then put the wicks in. I then add the fragrance oil and color to the wax. I usually pour the candles when the wax is anywhere between 155 and 165/175. I was considering moving to regular paraffin wax because I have heard that soy is harder to work with for this reason. Thoughts? Cinnamon: Not too bad Patchouli: Also pretty good Lemongrass and Sage: Ring near the top Vanilla: Nasty Apple: Again...nasty